JIT reaches Attock to grill Imran today

ATC allows investigation team to interrogate PTI chief about May 9 mayhem case

LAHORE:

A five-member joint investigation team on Friday reached Attock to interrogate PTI Chairman and deposed premier Imran Khan in connection with cases related to the May 9 mayhem registered against him in Lahore.

The JIT, which includes the Lahore DIG investigation, was granted permission by an anti-terrorism court in Lahore to question the PTI chief, who was incarcerated in Attock jail.

The JIT will record Imran’s statement on Saturday (today). He will be interrogated about the cases, including those at Lahore’s Sarwar Road police station, registered against him.

The PTI chairman previously appeared before the JIT in Lahore.

Earlier in the day, ATC Judge Ejaz Ahmad Buttar approved an application filed by the Gulberg police wherein they contended that they needed to question Imran about a case related to attacking the cops and setting a container on fire but he had not joined the investigation yet.

Read JIT's investigation of Imran Khan under the ‘siege of black goats’

They submitted to the court that they wanted to interrogate the PTI chairman after the addition of offences under sections 131 (abetting mutiny or attempting to seduce a soldier, sailor or airman from his duty), 121 (waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against Pakistan) and others of the Pakistan Penal Code to the FIR against him.

The police pleaded with the court to grant them permission to interrogate Imran, who was confined in Attock jail.

The judge has already allowed the police to interrogate the PTI chief in six other cases related to the May 9 violence, besides permission to arrest and question him in the Jinnah House attack.

Imran, who was ousted from power through a no-confidence vote in parliament in April last year, is currently serving a three-year sentence in Attock jail after being convicted in the Toshakhana (gift repository) case.

Read more May 9 riots: Imran’s sisters appear before JIT

In an unprecedented show of vandalism, protesters allegedly belonging to the PTI ransacked the government and military infrastructure, including the Lahore corps commanders’ residence, also known as Jinnah House, on May 9 following the arrest of the deposed premier by the paramilitary Rangers on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau in a graft case from the Islamabad High Court premises.

A high-level joint investigation team probing incidents related to the May 9 violence decided to nominate the PTI chairman in two terrorism cases, including an attack on the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.

(With input from APP)